7-Eleven could be coming to Flanders

TIM GANNON PHOTO | A 7Eleven franchise has obtained permits to build on the corner of Cypress Avenue and Flanders Road.

A Southampton real estate broker says he’s acquired the necessary approvals for a property owner to build a 3,000-square-foot store on the southwest corner of Flanders Road and Cypress Avenue, across from the Rancho Latino (formerly Esposito’s) restaurant.

Broker Brendan Byrne of the Global Group said the property was recently sold to Armstrong Properties of Garden City, which owns a number of Walgreens and 7-Eleven stores on Long Island and which plans to put a 7-Eleven at the Flanders site.

“We have full corporate approval and a part of the contingency of the sale was that it had to have 24-hour convenience store approval from Southampton Town and corporate approval from 7-Eleven,” said Mr. Byrne. A spokesperson from 7-Eleven’s corporate offices confirmed that they have signed a lease for the Flanders location.

The Southampton Town building department confirmed that it had issued a building permit for a convenience store at the Flanders Road site, and that the permit is good until Nov. 14, 2014. But the permit is currently not valid because the applicant owes a building department fee of $2,086. If the fee is paid before Nov. 14, the permit will again be valid, town officials said.

The site is about three-quarters of an acre in size and was sold for $740,000, Mr. Byrne said. He has been publicizing the sale and the fact that a 7-Eleven is planned there on Twitter for the past three weeks. The sale took place on Oct. 29, 2013, he said.

Southampton Town Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst said she was not aware of any application for a 7-Eleven in Flanders.

The property’s previous owner, Bryan Whalen, had spoken before Flanders, Riverside and Northampton Community Association in September 2009 when he had proposed what he called a “mini-mart” on the same property. He told FRNCA at the time that he planned to run the store himself. He later received town site plan approval for a 3,000 square foot convenience store, which is the approval the new owners of the property are using in their quest for the 7-Eleven.

FRNCA had opposed the store in 2009, when Brad Bender was its president.

“We’ve got enough Doritos and tacos and Tostitos and burgers and hot dogs at this point,” Mr. Bender said at the time.

In November Mr. Bender was elected to the Town Board and will take office in January.

In an interview last Tuesday, Mr. Bender opposed allowing a 7-Eleven at the Flanders Road site.

“That won’t go,” he said. “They can’t put a 7-Eleven there. They have approval for a convenience store, not 7-Eleven. That’s a franchise. That’s a whole different animal.”

Stan Glinka, a former Hampton Bays Chamber of Commerce president who also was elected to the Town Board in November, agreed.

“That’s not the place for a 7-Eleven,” he said.

But Mr. Byrne said the site is ideal for a 7-Eleven.

“What’s good about the location? The 15,000 cars that drive past it every day,” he said. “It’s a good development for that area because when you have a lot of people somewhere, it becomes more difficult for crimes to occur in that area.”